"Where do you live?" "Oh we're in North Arlington"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the person you're telling is familiar with the area, then North Arlington makes sense. In the same way you'd tell a local you live in Dupont (instead of saying DC). Not boastful. There are very few ways to describe where you're from in Arlington to a local. It's pretty much North or South.

This. Don't overthink it. It's no different from the major gripe of whether someone in the DMV area identifies as being "from DC" when talking to someone who doesn't know the area at all. Not everything is about status or virtue signaling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I'm in the DC area and I am not aware that North Arlington is more or less nice than other locations in Arlington.

Ha – that tells me you don’t know Arlington though

DP. Exactly. I live in close-in MD and “North Arlington” means nothing to me, either, except something vague about the missing middle. So I’m answer to OP’s question, people who use that phrase may think they’re conveying something, but for the most part they’re not.

You wouldn’t think they are referring to the northern portion of Arlington?

Missing middle has nothing to do with N v S Arlington.

Well yes, it would be the northern part of Arlington, obviously. But if you’re trying to tell me you’re somehow different from those folks in the southern part, the distinction is lost on me. Except that, since you went to the trouble of specifying “northern,” I’ll conclude that it means something to you if not to me.

So you'd just assume it's descriptive then, right?

[Anonymous]

I wonder why this is in Real Estate. This has nothing to do with real estate itself.

[Anonymous]

Isn't not snobby. It's specific like saying "we're in Georgetown or we're in Tenleytown or we're in Anacostia". You know how far away they live.

[Anonymous]

I think it's an informational thing. I would say I live near Tysons Corner vs. I live in Mclean because more people know where Tysons Corner is vs. Mclean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I'm in the DC area and I am not aware that North Arlington is more or less nice than other locations in Arlington.

Ha – that tells me you don’t know Arlington though

DP. Exactly. I live in close-in MD and “North Arlington” means nothing to me, either, except something vague about the missing middle. So I’m answer to OP’s question, people who use that phrase may think they’re conveying something, but for the most part they’re not.

Now THIS is a weird way to describe where you live. Close in to....what? Baltimore? DC? Are you in Forest Heights, Bladensburg, Bethesda? It's much more meaningless than North Arlington, which is how Arlington County actually describes their addresses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's an informational thing. I would say I live near Tysons Corner vs. I live in Mclean because more people know where Tysons Corner is vs. Mclean.

If you know where Tysons Corner is, you know Mclean because...SURPRISE! Part of that is in McLean.


McLean is also home to two of Washington’s biggest shopping destinations: Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria, which is known for its luxury shops.

https://www.washingtonian.com/location/vienna-mclean/#:~:text=McLean%20is%20also%20home%20to,known%20for%20its%20luxury%20shops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I'm in the DC area and I am not aware that North Arlington is more or less nice than other locations in Arlington.

Ha – that tells me you don’t know Arlington though

DP. Exactly. I live in close-in MD and “North Arlington” means nothing to me, either, except something vague about the missing middle. So I’m answer to OP’s question, people who use that phrase may think they’re conveying something, but for the most part they’re not.

Haha we should just say what that means to us. I’m closer to Maryland and I’d assume Arlington was huge like Silver Spring and someone was telling me they live closer to the DC side. So DTSS means walkable from red line but down Colesville is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from here, so find it kind of funny that living anywhere in Arlington would be a status symbol.

It’s like trying to make fetch happen.

I'm also from here and think you're being intentionally obtuse. In an area where people try to make everything a status symbol a pricey inner suburb with high home prices isn't "fetch" in your analogy.

Whether one believes anywhere in Arlington (or this whole area) is deserving of that status symbol award is something else entirely

But if you’re also from here, you know that Arlington being pricey is a relatively recent development. For most of my lifetime, it was a chain-link fence kind of place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from here, so find it kind of funny that living anywhere in Arlington would be a status symbol.

It’s like trying to make fetch happen.

I'm also from here and think you're being intentionally obtuse. In an area where people try to make everything a status symbol a pricey inner suburb with high home prices isn't "fetch" in your analogy.

Whether one believes anywhere in Arlington (or this whole area) is deserving of that status symbol award is something else entirely

I’m a DP and I agree with the poster that said Arlington as a status symbol is laughable. I think you must really be insecure to think this or if it is happening, to let it bother you. I from from North Arlington and I think all of Arlington sucks. I wouldn’t brag about it. How provincial.

[Anonymous]

Yeah it's a little obnoxious. Just say Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the person you're telling is familiar with the area, then North Arlington makes sense. In the same way you'd tell a local you live in Dupont (instead of saying DC). Not boastful. There are very few ways to describe where you're from in Arlington to a local. It's pretty much North or South.

This. Don't overthink it. It's no different from the major gripe of whether someone in the DMV area identifies as being "from DC" when talking to someone who doesn't know the area at all. Not everything is about status or virtue signaling.

I would assume this, too, as someone who grew up in Bethesda and now lives in Silver Spring. When locals ask where we live, I say “close-in Silver Spring,” or “Silver Spring, right by Kensington.” Silver Spring is *huge*, as is Arlington, so giving a little more information makes sense. It’s not like the person said Lyon Village or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"North Arlington, not to be confused with South Arlington," is how I would take that comment.

this. it's definitely this. people have been saying this since the 80s, at least.

to follow up on this, what I understood was South Arlington was where poor immigrants lived in apartments (the horror!) whereas north arlington was "old virginia families" who were "wealthy" and lived in "single family homes." The people who said "North Arlington" would always sort of pause right after they said north, just to give it some emphasis. "North [breathy pause] Arlington [looks around the group for acknowledgement]."

Growing up in NoVA, people were so snobby about North Arlington that when I visited Yorktown HS for an event, I thought it was going to be some kind of amazing school with chocolate milk in the water fountains and mercedes in teh parking lots. Was disappointed to find it was just another NoVa high school, although i remember getting super lost on my way there, driving through the wilds of arlington in the pre-GPS days.

I think you are fabricating this story, right up to your stupid “breathy pause.” Arlington was not know for wealthy families until recently. That has anlways been what McLean has been know for. And some parts of North Arlington were in fact crappy. When I moved to Arlington after college from up north, one of my college classmate’s mom was nervous about me living in Ballston because “it was such a bad area.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the person you're telling is familiar with the area, then North Arlington makes sense. In the same way you'd tell a local you live in Dupont (instead of saying DC). Not boastful. There are very few ways to describe where you're from in Arlington to a local. It's pretty much North or South.

This. Don't overthink it. It's no different from the major gripe of whether someone in the DMV area identifies as being "from DC" when talking to someone who doesn't know the area at all. Not everything is about status or virtue signaling.

I would assume this, too, as someone who grew up in Bethesda and now lives in Silver Spring. When locals ask where we live, I say “close-in Silver Spring,” or “Silver Spring, right by Kensington.” Silver Spring is *huge*, as is Arlington, so giving a little more information makes sense. It’s not like the person said Lyon Village or something.

Someone saying Lyon Village wouldn't even get an eyebrow raise from me. You asked where someone lived and they told you, specifically, where they live. Assuming the other person has enough familiarity with the neighborhood to know where Lyon Village is located that makes sense.

But "North Arlington" is so large an area that it doesn't actually seem very useful for narrowing anything down. In fact it doesn't really seem to tell you anything other than it's not South Arlington which comes across as just specific enough to be snobby but not specific enough to be useful. I'd err towards "Arlington" and if they ask, specifically, give the neighborhood or "close to X,Y,Z shopping district".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Silver Spring is *huge*, as is Arlington, so giving a little more information makes sense.

Wikipedia says Silver Spring is <8 square miles with population of 81,000 - that's way, way smaller than Arlington. Do people use Silver Spring to refer to a much larger area that isn't actually SS?